Identification of the Bombyx red egg gene reveals involvement of a novel transporter family gene in late steps of the insect ommochrome biosynthesis pathway.

ABSTRACT: Ommochromes are one of the major pigments involved in coloration of eggs, eyes, and body surface of insects. However, the molecular mechanisms of the final steps of ommochrome pigment synthesis have been largely unknown. The eggs of the silkworm Bombyx mori contain a mixture of ommochrome pigments, and exhibit a brownish lilac color. The recessive homozygous of egg and eye color mutant, red egg (re), whose eggs display a pale orange color instead of normal dark coloration, has been long suggested to have a defect in the biosynthesis of the final ommochrome pigments. Here, we identify the gene responsible for the re locus by positional cloning, mutant analysis, and RNAi experiments. In the re mutants, we found that a 541-bp transposable element is inserted into the ORF of BGIBMGA003497-1 (B

SUBMITTER: Osanai-Futahashi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3366856 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature